The Sweet Escape
by SouredSweetie
Summary: Ginny and Harry get stuck in a confectionary factory once owned by the Weasley twins. There they must face giant chocolate frogs, killer Bertie Bott Beans, carnivorous Pumpkin Pasties and their biggest fear: their feelings for one another! (EDITED 11/2013)
1. The Ambush of the Chocolate Frogs

**AUTHOR' NOTE: 19/11/2013**

**SO, I haven't been on this site for a while, and then I remember, hey! I used to write stories! Trying to figure out my password and email after about seven years incognito is not what you'd call fun, but I did it, and then bothered to re-read some of my stories. Some were cringe-worthy, though at the time were totally hip as I wasn't nearly as cynical as I am now, whilst others I was pleasantly surprised about, since I have not an iota of creativity left. **

**This story has thus, been slightly edited and updated, since its final upload, and this is the only author's note you'll get. So I don't own anything, the characters may be a little OOC (do they still use that term nowadays?) but hey, yolo (yep, were past the noughties now), I commonly use the letter U in between O and R in words and S's instead of Z;s as I use British English, so don't harp too much about spelling, I'm not American! and I haven't even read the final two Harry Potter books. Yep. One of those people.**

* * *

**The Sweet Escape**

_CHAPTER 1_

_The Ambush of the Slightly-out-of-Proportioned Chocolate Frogs._

* * *

**DO NOT ENTER: GIANT SWEETS ON THE WAR PATH. OBVIOUSLY ADDING A MUGGLE GROWTH ENHANCMENT HORMONE INTO THE MIXTURE WAS, IN HIND SIGHT, A BAD IDEA.**

_**~ Sincerely Fred and George Weasley; founders of WWW**_

* * *

Unfortunately, for Harry and Ginny they had missed the sign: and most would- it was only two hands width in length and hidden amongst an overgrown Lily Weed, and some other decidedly unpleasant shrubbery- which clearly, was the intent of its mischievous creators.

"Harry, I highly doubt that hiding in a run down confectionary factory will solve your aficionado problems! They'll find us and we'll be trapped! And then what? We'll ward them off with countless numbers of treats? Oh yes, stay back crazed female! This chocolate frog is not as sweet as you may think! Its 70% cocoa! Harry!"

"I was really hoping you'd see this as an enlightening experience," Harry sighed, ducked under a lose plank of wood.

Ginny scowled and bobbed under the plank Harry was holding up for her. "Oh I'm sure to be enlightened Harry. Some sort of wizard owns this building, so who knows what sort of charms and traps have been conjured in there to ward off Muggles. Not to mention it looks older than Merlin himself and could at any moment collapse over us, leading to our ultimate demise with earwax flavoured Bertie Bott Beans as our witness."

"I'm more concerned about the rabid pack of females chasing after us, and one decidedly manly one at that!"

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Oh come on Harry; they're only girls with a crush. You've faced Voldemort countless times and yet you're more afraid of adolescent girls."

"Voldemort didn't find it necessary to pinch my bottom or try to charm my pants off- and by that I mean in the literal sense. No, we are going to be cowards for once and hide. My bottom can't take any more bruising." Ginny, knowing he would not be swayed, glared at him and stalked ahead, back straight her brilliant red bobbing wildly, looking for a door to the building that wouldn't crush her. Harry smiled at his friend and followed.

It had been six years since they had left Hogwarts to find the Horcruxes; five years since the final battle, in which many lives were lost, including those of: Fred Weasley, Severus Snape, Lupin and Tonks.

Alas, here he was now 22, one of the top Aurors in the Ministry, being chased by a dozen or so female fans, some of which had been enamoured with his courage and dominance at defeating the Dark Lord, and others he regrettably obtained during a Quidditch charity match to mark the fifth anniversary for all those brave souls whose lives were lost during the war.

Unsurprisingly he was the seeker and won the match for his team thirty minutes into the game by pulling off a _Wronksi Feint_ that entranced his already captivated fans. Ron had played the Keeper and Hermione, who had no choice but to master the skill of flying, with Ron's benevolent but utterly unhelpful guidance, in order to join the Ministry, had played a Chaser. Suffice to say she didn't play too badly, but a monkey on stilts balancing on a broom one hundred feet in the air would've done better.

Ron had told her this and she had turned him into a cockroach. His mother hadn't known, and tried to kill the insect; and would've succeeded had Harry not turned him back, laughing all the while.

And so, the Great Potter: The Boy Who Lived and Would Not Die, was in hiding with his friend trying to get away from the female fanatics. Harry thought hiding in a rundown factory would suffice; Ginny on the other hand was less than impressed.

"Harry," she turned to him, folding her arms in that haughty manner she was accustomed to; it would've frightened a lesser man, but Harry stood tall.

"Yes Ginevra?"

"Don't be smart. Have you noticed that there are no doors in this ramshackle factory?" She gestured to the walls flamboyantly; Ron had rightfully called her mental.

He hadn't thought of that. He assumed all wizard factories to be the same as the Muggle ones: clearly he was mistaken. Shit on sticks. "I'm sure if we look around there'll be a door somewhere. There cannot not be a door!"

"It may take me a while to grasp that," she added dryly, and fired a spell at the wall and cursed. "These walls are literally unbreakable!"

He walked over to the fiery redhead and took away the wand. "You keep hitting the wall with explosive curses Gin and the whole place may just fall apart."

Ginny started to panic. This was not good at all! Stuck in a place alone with Harry, she didn't know how to handle it. Wasn't it enough that he had been her crush for over a decade and her love for half of that, that now she was likely to be trapped with the wizard for Merlin knows how long?!

The last time she was close to him was when he was teaching her how to pull off the Wronksi Feint, before her tryouts for the Holyhead Harpies. The close contact had been unbearable for her, so she made the excuse that she was getting vertigo and to continue another time; though damned if she ever would. She knew it was wrong, she could not fall for her brother's best friend…again. They had decided to separate at the end of Hogwarts when Harry left to find the Horcruxes and knew that the best way to maintain a good friendship was to forget the past. If only it were that easy.

She hadn't said a word when Harry started to date Cho Chang, though inside she was churning. She comforted him when they broke up, celebrating his misfortune. Hermione thought they should grow up and marry already: Ron told her to mind her own business. So she again made him vomit slugs for a week.

In her trance, Ginny had bumped into a wall. _That's all there seem to be,_ she thought hysterically_, walls_! She squealed when hard hands steadied her.

"You alright Gin?" Harry asked concerned, yet was unable to hide the laughter in his eyes.

"I'm fine, why?" she quickly stepped out of his way; no need to encourage those feelings to start up again. Looking around all she could see were the derelict grey walls of the building, covered with weeds and rust, and undoubtedly a few creepy-crawlies. Regardless, she leaned back against, what surprisingly, was a spongy wall. "Wha-"

Harry heard a yelp and turned to where he thought Ginny stood. She was nowhere to be seen. "Ginny? Ah… GINNY?!"

No sound. He strode over to the wall and gently touched it. It was spongy and slimy at the same time, and he wasn't surprised when his hand went through. "Well I bet that's violated some building regulations. You there Gin?"

"Yes! Why did we have to come into this bloody factory Harry!" she spat. She saw Harry step through the wall and rubbed at her sore bottom on the floor. "What are you laughing at?"

Harry suddenly stoped chuckling. He thought he saw a flicker of movement to the far right of Ginny. "_Lumos_," he said and the room suddenly lit up. He stopped dead in his tracks: half of the room was filled with giant chocolate frogs about a metre high.

"Harry what is it?" he helped her up, his gaze unwavering at the giant frogs. She dusted herself off. "Harry, we need to get out of here!"

"Shut up for a second Gin," he whispered and she turned around.

"Oh my God."

"It's a giant chocolate frog army," he muttered and would've laughed at the sheer stupidity of it but found he couldn't. I doubt anyone would have, had they been facing a hundred giant edible amphibians.

"I suppose now's a bad time to tell you I don't have my wand Harry," Ginny whispered, slightly hysterical. "And I was never particularly good at wand-less spells…"

Harry cursed, trying to imagine the headlines in the papers. "The Boy who never dies killed during a Chocolate Frog Assault"; "No need to fear the Dark Lord, Dark Chocolate Frogs are on the war path".

He grabbed Ginny by the waist and together they moved sideways; cringing as the tiny black eyes followed them closely. "They're alive."

Harry sighed, "Nice observation Gin. Try thinking of something useful to say next time."

She turned in his arms and glared at him, "Well how about: Look Harry there's a door over the other side of the slightly-out-of-proportion amphibians. How about we eat our way out?"

His grip on her waist tightened, "Try with less sarcasm next time." He handed her his wand, "Take this; I'm going to try something out."

Regretfully, Harry let Ginny go and walked slowly toward the chocolate frogs. They didn't move at all, he waved a hand in front of one of them; nothing whatsoever.

"Is that some sort of cultural greeting known only to the Chocolate Frogs of the Factory your performing? I don't think establishing a relationship with these monsters is going to get you anywhere. Squashed, perhaps, but that's about it."

"Gin, I think they're here for decoration, they're not real. See look," he touched one of them his hand going straight through the chocolate. "Nothing."

Suddenly a huge tongue slashed out at Harry and wrapped itself around his arms and chest. Ginny screamed, "Not real Harry!? Oh Merlins Melons! What am I going to do?"

Harry struggled for breath as the chocolate tongue suffocated him, "Standing…. there…is not…" the tongue tightened itself around him, "going to HELP!"

"Think Ginevra, think!" She ran through a dozen spells in her head, surprisingly none would counter attack a confectionary ambush. The surrounding frogs started to stir and make their way towards her, fortunately very slowly.

Meanwhile Harry was having a hard enough time trying to breathe; the thick tongue of the frog felt like it was crushing his bones and each breath was a struggle. He had tried to bite through the chocolate, and it had worked for a time but after a while he started feeling sick. _Hurry up Gin, _he thought and pushed at it.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" she cried and hurled a frog against the wall. It broke apart in sharp shards of cocoa, which grazed her skin. "Well that's not a good one," she looked over at Harry who was putting up a fair fight, but he wouldn't last much longer. _Chocolate…nice to eat, no doubt, but I'm not going to eat my way through all these._

"_Incendio_!" the frog holding Harry started to melt as did all the others from the heat, leaving a thick puddle of sticky chocolate on the floor.

Harry rose to his feet, spitting the goo from his mouth. "Took you long enough!" he spluttered, covered in thick chocolate. "Oh Shit." The melted frogs started to reform, larger and darker than before: but now into one huge frog.

"Well who'd have thought, that you melt dozens of milk chocolate frogs and in return, form a giant dark chocolate toad…" her voice somewhat drifting, rather inappropriately, into thought.

_Great_, thought Harry, _of all the times to have a thoughtful deliberation, she does it in the most inappropriate of times._ He grabbed at her hand and started for the archway across the room. "Now is not the time to use your brain. Let's go, Gin!"

He yanked at her hand, and they started running for the door. Ginny looked behind her to see the bulbous three-meter high toad leaping mightily towards them. "Oh shit."

Harry turned, only to curse himself. "Who the hell made this place?"

The master toad let out a sickening sound and lashed its tongue out at them; narrowly missing Ginny - and instead came crashing down onto a lose pillar. The ceiling began to shake.

"There's no way we can out run it Harry, it's too fast."

She was right, he had to think fast. He stopped suddenly, Ginny crashing into him. "I didn't mean we had to stop and welcome death!"

He quickly pulled out a tiny broomstick from his pocket and muttered a spell causing it to enlarge greatly. His Lighting 6000 was the top of the market broomstick going at least 300km per half hour. "Get on!"

Ginny was muttering incomprehensibly all while getting on the broomstick. Harry ushered her in front of him and pulled her tightly towards him. "Isn't there a more suitable way than flying Harry?"

He whispered in her ear, causing her to shiver. "Would you like to stand around to find out?" He cursed as the huge tongue lashed out again.

Ginny screamed as Harry kicked off on his broom, she clutched at his hands tightly and closed her eyes. "It's alright Ginny, we're gaining speed."

It thrust its tongue out high into the air, intercepting Harry's flight path and hit into them.

"Son of a-" Harry started and strained to get control of the broom. Ginny shut her eyes tightly as the broom hurled towards the ground; it wasn't supposed to end like this! Harry then jumped on his broom ready to perform a Wronski Feint.

"Harry!" gaining control Ginny opened her eyes. She was seething with rage and was known for her nasty temper. "That's it Harry, give me your wand!"

Harry who had only just managed to control the broom was too distracted to register her command. He looked behind them and was surprised to see the frog standing stock-still. He laughed and turned around again, only to see a dead end of the corridor. He quickly stopped the broom short of hitting the wall and turned to face the frog.

Looking back at it, it was a rather amusing situation. All that was needed were cowboy hats, some guns and a rolling ball of hay, to represent a familiar American western scene. Ginny was not the least bit amused and snatched the wand off Harry.

After a muttered spell, the amphibian began to shrink and change shape. She smiled and turned to Harry, who was staring at the crumbling ceiling. "A little transfiguration should do the trick."

Before Harry could comment, the huge toad had changed shape indeed: this time a giant cockroach took its place. "Um Ginny, we're not trying to transfigure Ron here. No need for the rodent-"

"What? Oh bullocks…" she turned to see a huge giant chocolate cockroach, waving its antennas around frantically. She looked at Harry and laughed shakily. "Whoops. That's not a table..."

"Ah…" Harry groaned yanking Ginny and himself back onto the broom. "Maybe if you get rid of the legs and eyes, and body and turned it into a table it would be." The new figure thrust and moved about, trying desperately to get hold of the intruders. It fired sickly goo at them in the air. "Oh nice."

Ginny thought hard again; it was becoming a rather bothersome habit, as she wasn't getting paid to do it. As a multi-positioned Quidditch player, she was known for her brutal strategic skills and her logical approach to tough situations, so why couldn't she think? The simplest of situations: well if you called being attacked by a chocolate frog-then toad- and-now-cockroach was simple: she could not function the slightest. Then an idea, an absolutely terrible idea occurred to her: heck she may as well give it a shot.

"Harry, confuse it a little. Cockroaches can't get up if they're on their backs, it'll at least give us a chance to escape." So much for one of Hogwarts most brilliant minds, though clearly she was no Hermione.

"That is so totally," he strained his muscles as he tried to avoid another splurge of goo; "preposterous…but I think it may work. Hold on."

Harry flew straight above the pest's head and begun to circle it. The roach spun around trying to hit them with its gunk, missing continually and hitting the ceiling: which started to give way.

"Hurry up Harry, or we'll be crushed."

After a mischievous smile, Harry came straight at the pest full force. Neither moving out of the way, Ginny sensed that there was going to be quite a large collision. She grabbed at Harry's hand, who whispered in her ear telling her to trust him. She had done that in the first place and look where they ended up.

Just before hitting the beast, Harry fired out a spell and it fell back: its legs wildly flicking around in the air. Just as they were about to land, the ceiling above them gave way: huge shards of brick and mortar falling at deadly speeds.

Ginny looked up, half in a daze, and wiping soot from her eyes. "Oh this really isn't good."

Not it's not, he agreed and flew up into the giant hole that had caved in.

"Um Harry, we're supposed to get away from the crumbling ceiling, not go to the source!"

"If you hadn't noticed," he began, narrowly dodging a falling rock. "Staying on this level would be suicide. There were no doors, just a huge, ugly chocolate frog! Would it not be better to go up a level then get crushed?"

He posed a point and she remained silent all the way up. They were supposed to try and find away to get out of this place, not explore the upper levels to see what other mysteries the place held. Passing through the gap, Harry found a safe spot to land. "Well that was fun."

She turned and glared at him seated behind her. She held his head and shook it, "Fun? FUN! Harry are you mad?" she quickly let go of him, as a whole wad of melted chocolate fell on her hand. "You're covered in it!"

He gave her a hand getting off the broom, "Surprisingly Ginny, I'm not sure you noticed, but I almost got swallowed by a frog; a chocolate one at that. Which would probably signify the huge amount of melted chocolate covering my body." He took off his shirt, and unconsciously flexed his muscles: Ginny of course noticed and turned away quickly.

"Now where are we?"

He took out his wand and shrunk his battered broomstick. "No idea. But-" he started and licked off some of the chocolate of his hand. "This is nice. Shame it tried to kill us."

Ginny stood in the center of the room. There was no way she was going near any walls; heaven knows what other surprises this place posed. She took a deep breath and tried to stay clam. "What spell did you use on it just now?"

His eyes grew dark, "Not one you'd want to know Ginny."

She left it at that; she knew better than to question his motives, so decided to assess the current situation: they were in shit. "We have to get out of here Harry; but I don't think we can."

"Where there's a will there's a way, Ginny." Harry casually said, rubbing the chocolate off his body. Ginny noticed how it stuck in the crevices of his muscles; she swallowed. Harry wandered ahead.

"Yes and where there's a will: there's also a corpse," Ginny muttered and followed along; or tried to until the floor beneath her gave way and she landed again on her backside. "It's not funny Harry!" she stood up in the tiny room, her head almost hitting the ceiling. "And if you're not careful, you'll be the one writing out yours soon enough!"

* * *

SouredSweetie


	2. Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans:

**The Sweet Escape**

_CHAPTER 2_

_Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans: Every Reason to Bolt away in Fear_

* * *

**BE AWARE: STEP INTO THE WRONG ROOM AND DOOM SHALL REIGN…WELL NOT REALLY, WE JUST LIKE TO FRIGHTEN PEOPLE; BUT SERIOUSLY, OPEN THE WRONG DOOR AND YOU'LL BE FACING STICKY SITUATIONS… AND SOME ANGRY BEANS. **

**THESE ARE THE RESULTS WHEN YOU EXPERIMENT WITH MUGLLE LIQUOR AND SWEETS.**

_**~ Sincerely Fred and George Weasley; founders of WWW**_

* * *

"You alright down there Ginny?"

"I do hope that wasn't supposed to be humorous Harry, because I am certainly not laughing!" she chided from the small room. "I can't see anything here, pass me your wand. _Lumos_."

The room was larger than it had first appeared; the walls were wooden and covered in posters of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and its creator: Bertie; a stout man, with glasses and a baldhead shaped oddly enough to be a bean itself; yet she still had to crawl her way through.

Ginny started forward, careful not to hit her head against the ceiling. Seeing a small door at the end of the room she called out to Harry, who ungracefully jumped in.

"Oomph," Harry cried, massaging his head. "Well who'd have thought I'd be too tall for a room?" Harry had to hunch his slight 5'8'' height further as the room progressed. "Have you noticed anything unusual Ginny?"

She turned to see Harry almost on his hands and knees, awkwardly slumping his way toward her. She laughed at him and continued on. She didn't care that the roof was progressively shrinking the closer to the door they came: she was just glad for another escape route.

"You might find it amusing, but personally, I don't like resembling a troglodyte from our pre-evolutionary human form. All I need now is the fur and webbed feet."

"No, just the webbed feet…" she joked, Harry not amused at all and bumped into her backside. "No funny business!"

"Well its hardly my fault, I bumped into you! If you're currently unaware, my head is at a slightly uncomfortable angle at present, and the least of my concerns are watching what's ahead of me!" He sat back and waited for Ginny to unlock the door. Glancing around he noticed the room was bean-shaped. The walls were striped black, yellow, red and blue and the images on the walls were bags of moving coloured sweets, and it had changed a few metres ahead.

"Done." Ginny shot a triumphant smile towards Harry. "Come on let's go!"

He followed her through, giving her a nudge when her full backside got stuck in the small door; this time she didn't take a swipe at him. He felt like he was in Alice in Wonderland, as he travelled through the tiny door and into an unknown space. He just hoped they landed on solid ground.

"Ugh!" she lit the room with Harry's wand and stood, glad to be able to stretch her back. The room was identical to the previous but slightly higher: Harry's head just missed the colourful ceiling. "Bloody hell, it's still striped!"

Harry looked up, "It's identical, and I bet there's a corridor and door at the end." They both turned to see just that. "Look, let's see where it leads to and if it's the same place: then we'll scream and shout."

He led the way this time, his manly pride not to be tarnished, and unlocked the door with a simple turn of the handle. _Too easy_, he mused. Fitting through the door effortlessly, he was disappointed not to give Ginny another nudge, _don't think about that now, just don't think at all. _"It's still the same looking room." But the ceilings were far higher and a weird, yeasty smell emanated from the place , he felt dizzy.

Ginny gave an angry sigh and leaned against a stripy wall, closing her eyes. _This is ridiculous! I knew it was too good to be true. Oh bugger, what now?! _She tried to push herself off the wall but she was stuck; sticky goo was latching her to the wall. "Harry?"

"Oh what now?" he casually turned to see her eagerly trying to pull herself from the wall. "Well it seems you've become quite attached to this festering building, as I knew you would!" she stopped fidgeting; and if looks could kill, he'd be six feet under. He chuckled.

"Oh stop laughing and make yourself useful. I really can't take anymore surprises today." Ginny snapped and looked at anywhere but Harry. It was hard enough she was alone with him in this decrepit factory- but in such close proximities…she blushed.

Harry read what he thought was pain on her face and decided not to tease her anymore: well, not until she got off the wall. "Here, I'll try ripping you off." He grabbed at her arm and pulled. It stuck hard and he fell back with a force and cursed.

"Ouch!"

He grabbed at both arms and tried again, this time the stripy goo on the walls slithered its way onto his arms. Bringing his hand to his face, he smelled the colourful slush and deciding that you only live once (or in his case several times) and tasted some; earning him a repulsed expulsion from Ginny.

The liquid tasted like raspberry and something else... bitter; with a curious glance at the yellowish colour on his hands, he tasted that too: lemon, thank heavens, for he thought it bogey flavoured at worst.

Ginny, useless and stuck, stared at Harry with unabashed horror. Was he eating the despicable goo that clung her to the wall, and was relishing it? "Glad that you are enjoying yourself, I really am, but I wouldn't mind that feeling to be reciprocated." Her eye twitched as Harry tried the black coloured goo. "GET ME OFF THEN STUFF YOUR FACE!"

Harry spat out the sweet: he could have done without that flavour. O_h well_, he mused, with_ that attitude she wasn't going to get off the wall_!

He glanced around the room, thankful it had higher ceilings so he could stand, and thought it to be the Bertie Bott Bean wing: at least it was safe, save for the lunatic stuck on the wall; there were no giant killer frogs here! However there was a door, and wondered if he should open it or not, figuring it would probably be another replica of the past two.

He decided to take a gamble and walked towards it. "Harry?! You're leaving me here? You can't!?"

"I can and I am…" she wished she had bothered to master a wandless jinx. "Just relax, maybe it's like quicksand, the more you move around, the more wedged in you'll be…" he ignored her protests and pulled it open. He saw nothing until a little movement on the floor caught his eye…

The floor was covered in over a thousand tiny figures; at a closer look, he recognised them as Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans- in a multitude of colours and flavours: like the animal he was, his mouth watered. He glanced ahead and saw beans that were about two metres in height at the other end of the room. He quickly shut the door in case they decided to come alive.

Ginny meanwhile was feeling dizzy; she could feel the goo absorb itself through her skin: it tasted and smelled oddly like…no, it couldn't be alcoholic? She saw Harry and spat, "So Pissy Potter, what did you see?"

"A little House Elf dancing to the Nut-bush and singing, "I will always love you" by Whitney Houston. What do you think?"

She had followed his advice and tried to relax against the wall but did not budge. She was doomed to stay on this wall for the rest of her life, until some monster came to disembowel her; she'd probably taste nice, with the added flavours from the gunk- though she tried not to think about it.

She turned from Harry in anger and decided to think again. Her previous plan: flipping the cockroach over on its back, in its simplicity and totally absurdity had worked- so she decided to play dumb again.

Bertie Bott's Beans were like the muggle Jelly Beans; you couldn't melt them like the chocolate frogs, but then an idea struck to her: freeze them! She had once tried it as a child and had lost a tooth in the process; the "jelly" turning rock hard consequently. She thought she might as well try it, that way as the goo froze, Harry could then pull her from the wall with a little more ease:_ perfect!_

She told him the idea and he shook his head in bemusement. "You never cease to amaze me Ginny. Only a sister of the WWW could come up with a plan like that."

"Well they work don't they?" she shot back in childish retort. "Come on Harry, freeze me…"

"Okay," he whispered a freezing spell and manoeuvred the wand around Ginny to hit the wall. The goo crystallised to from iced sweets, and he made a note to himself to try it sometime.

"Ooh it's c-c-cold H-Harry," the wall against her was solid ice and went through her clothes. "That's enough, t-try p-pull me of-ff-fff."

"Maybe I should melt it? It might liquefy?"

"NO! Just…just me o-off."

He grabbed at her hand and repeated the step he performed only moments before. She gasped in pain as her back pulled away from the wall. He grabbed at her other arm and pulled harder, and she miraculously fell from the wall leaving her cloak behind- and landed on top of him.

Her head spun from the sudden whiplash of the pull and she gazed down into amused bright pools of emerald green. Shaking her head she tried to get up, pushing up against the hard form beneath her, who slightly muffled a groan of pain: so she thought.

Watching her struggle to gain composure, he could feel the icy cold of her body against his: he bit at his lip from the sensation. She was very small against him, and he was not hunk of a man, feeling no pain as she pushed at him. He grabbed her arms and sat up; she ended up straddling him so closely that their bodies were less than two inches from each other.

She felt herself warming up, though unsure why. Slowly her eyes adjusted to her surroundings and her question was answered. "Oh Merlin, sorry Harry!" she found as hard as she tried, she couldn't get up, every time she did so, she fell back down: still straddling Harry.

If she fidgeted against him anymore, he wouldn't be able to help himself and would push her down and kiss her senseless: didn't she know what she did to him? Glancing up at her flushed form, her brilliant curls covering face, he noticed the discarded robe still latched on the wall, leaving her with a pair of hipster jeans and a modestly cut V-necked top but in the current situation he found it difficult not to look at her.

Deciding it was the gentleman's thing to do; he stood up and took her with him. She leaned against him and pushed herself away, determined not to look weak and helpless in his arms; but ended up on the floor anyway. "Whoops!'

Running a hand through his hair, he looked down at her helpless form; watching her giggling into hysterics. "Are you drunk Ginny?"

She shook a finger at him and hiccuped. "No silly," hiccup. "I just feel very—dizzy. Whoa." She tried to stand up again and failed.

She took the hand he offered and pulled herself up and fell against him yet again: the damnable wench! "W-hen did you start working out?" she traced her fingers innocently around the muscles on his chest, visible due to the missing buttons on his shirt from the frog onslaught, and he stifled a groan: what was she doing?

He too felt a little dizzy, and it wasn't just because Ginny was drawing pictures on his chest, but after he had tasted some of the goo from the walls. He had noted the bitterness amongst the sweet, but had thought little of it. Sitting Ginny on the floor, he stalked over to one of the unfrozen walls and breathed in the smell again: a pungent aroma, he remembered though could not a name to it.

Ginny crawled over towards him like a helpless babe and copied Harry. "We look like idiots Harry." She then scrunched up her nose, moving away. "Smells like Ron…and the George."

Ahh, well that explained it all. One of the old concoctions the Weasley twins had invented tasted oddly like English beer with a hint of something else. They had said it was their little secret, now he knew it wasn't just one flavour but a few of them: Bertie's Bean's actually. But, how did these walls get a taste of the Weasley potion?

Forgetting to ponder, he searched around for his drunken little wench, who probably hadn't tasted any Muggle alcohol in her life, and instead heard a door slam. Bugger.

Running towards the door he opened it to see Ginny flicking around the little beans and playing Jacks with them. "Hey Harry I'm up to seven!"

"Dear God," he whispered, not certain of what worried him more: the supposedly evil beans over the other side of the room (had they just winked?) or the intoxicated witch in front of him. "Come on get up Ginny."

"Why are you whispering?" she yelled and Harry winced: they moved.

He couldn't pull out his broom, it was battered from the last battle and the ceilings were too low to fly; he hoped that they weren't evil beans, but how bad could they be?

"Look Harry, an apparating post is over there. Maybe we can apparate out of here?" so she wasn't totally off her rockers, she smiled in triumph before sitting on a whole batch of beans. "Oh thank heavens these are soft. Ooh!" she giggled as the beans beneath her moved, "they're massaging my bottom!"

The other sweets in the room jumped up, the smaller ones turning to the side, hit the floor again and started rolling their way quickly to Harry and Ginny. As the first approach a metre from the two, another row of slightly larger beans started rolling their way as well.

Harry almost laughed at the sheer stupidity of the situation and decided to stay stationary, believing the small beans would make no impact on his body. As the tiny beans hit his shoe, he only felt a tingle on foot: he might just survive this onslaught!

This time sniggering, he decided to make his way to the far right of the room where he saw a small passage to escape. He grabbed hold of Ginny and half carried her dizzy form toward it.

As he reached the middle of the room, the large beans rolled towards the escape route and blocked the path. All was still for a small moment, except for Ginny who thought the whole situation was quite hilarious and picked up a bean and ate it.

"Mmm, Apple."

Beans half the size of Ginny rolled their way fiercely towards them: he knew he could ward them off, but Ginny was another matter. Deciding to out run or roll them, he dragged Ginny and headed toward the door that led them to the goo-room. He suddenly felt a powerful force sweep him off his feet, and he crashed into a wall.

Ginny had just gone tumbling to the side, unaware of the onslaught of beans heading toward her. She seemed to still for a moment, shaking out of her drunken state; which had been caused due to the previous room's' yeasty aroma. "What? Oh my God!"

Harry, it would seem, was stuck to the wall, highly unamused and devastatingly dishevelled in his state. He was handsome no doubt about that, the messy black hair and the piercing green eyes, that he no longer hid behind thick frames; the long and lean of his chiselled body… Ginny went out of her trance and Harry called toward her as another row of beans rolled their way towards her.

She hissed in pain as they attacked her side, but having been trained to take much more of a beating by Quidditch, she wasn't going to be defeated by sweets…let alone beans. The beans were pushing her toward Harry and she had the unsettling feeling they wanted her attached to the wall beside him. It would've been a perversely romantic had they had the choice of being alive.

Digging her heels into the floor, she gathered her body and rolled on top of the beans with another hiss of pain. They were just under half the size of her; it was like rolling over a coffee table but damn were they hard!

"Oomph," she cried as another bean rammed into her stomach. "Dammit." She quickly stood and barely dodged the last of the beans that came her way. She turned to see Harry now smothered in goo after all the rolling beans had lost control and smashed into the wall, splurging a huge amount of muck all over the place- mostly on Harry.

Smothering a giggle: she would blame it on her inebriated state, she hastily moved toward Harry, hoping to perform the same spell he had on her: however, she didn't get a chance to as the largest bean hurled her way. She too hit the wall with an alarming thud, fortunately at the sheer size of the sweet; it had broken a hole into the wall and released Harry from its gummy grasp.

Cursing, Ginny rose to her knees and rubbed her face with her hands. She called over to Harry who too was getting up, though cursing all the way. "You okay Harry?"

"My whole body got smacked with a bean Ginny …a bean! And it was that bad it broke the wall…" he pointed to the gap they had flown from. "I broke through a solid wall: a couple of inches thick and it was all because of a BEAN! How do you think I'm feeling?"

"Well I'd be embarrassed," she mumbled. Safe for the moment from the onslaught of beans, she stubbornly stood and shoved her fists on her hips. "Harry now's not the time to whinge about your bruised pride…"

Running a sticky hand through his hair, he wasn't impressed when Ginny stifled a laugh at his hair. He probably shouldn't have let her watch that Muggle movie about some girl called Mary. It was the mucks fault! It shaped his hair into an overly rigid stick of some sort. "Merlin's balls Ginny, its got nothing to do with my pride…it's the BEANS…we're getting slaughtered by beans! How can I explain to you the sheer stupidity of the situation…?"

"In the form of abstract dance?"

"I can take on Voldemort, I can handle the female menstrual cycle…but I have a slight issue with abnormally large sadistic chocolate frogs and confused beans who think they are bowling balls…am I the only one who thinks so?"

Ginny took it rather well. "Well, since we haven't asked anyone else on the planet, I wouldn't gamble on it. It's not going to do us much good complaining we need a plan."

"Ah shit," he heard a thudding sound coming from the other room and shut his eyes tight. Holy Merlin, this was a nightmare.

Ginny grabbed his wand and put a locking spell on the door. The thudding got louder and they moved away from the door. "Ah Ginny, I don't think these things use doors…"

A second later the wall in front of them burst apart and the biggest bean they had ever seen rolled its way towards them. Cursing yet again, he sent a silent prayer to whoever was having a good laugh at their expense, and damned them to this hell they were trying to flee from. Grabbing Ginny's hand, barely escaping the objects coming their way, they started to make their way to the door that led to the tiny room.

"The only way to get out is to go to the source. There was a portal in there, if we can get to that, we might get out of here," Harry called over his shoulder; all the while Ginny had her head tucked in her arm to protect herself from the falling ceiling.

She was cut, bruised and bleeding, not to mention she hadn't slept in almost twelve hours: or so it seemed, it felt like she was in here for ages. "Where's your wand?" She must've dropped it...

He didn't know and he had no time to respond as more beans hurdled there way at them from his side, luckily they were much smaller and he only momentarily lost his balance. He felt Ginny's body slowly getting heavily as her energy slowly drained. "Hang on a bit more Ginny …"

They had reached the room surprised to see an empty space: or at least Ginny was; Harry thought it was slightly suspicious.

He had a theory, oh and what a great one it was: the Bertie Bott Beans were an army of beans serving to protect the only escape route: the mysterious blue portal on the other side of the room. The _mini beans_, who were huge in their own right, were commanded by the multicoloured giant Colonel bean that was rolling its way…Merlin's melons, as Ginny would say, it was just over the other side of the room…

Ginny falling for the trap had run into the room to get Harry's wand that was mysteriously positioned in the centre of the empty room.

"GINNY!" Harry called, but it was too late, the beans hidden by the shadows had emerged and had rolled onto Ginny. "Shit!"

"Ah," she had screamed, and had done so each time the beans had rolled on top of her: fortunately not the large ones. "God damn these little shits!" _I wonder what colour flavour that bean would be_...she thought in her hysteria; and slowly faded out of consciousness.

Harry began to run toward Ginny, who he no longer could see under the beans and suddenly stopped. He turned to stare at the master bean: the multicoloured Colonel bean who controlled the pack. He raised his dark brow and inclined his head as a challenge for the evil bean: who too moved a little in response.

And so they had stayed that way in a staring contest to determine the stronger of the two nutcases. The beans covering Ginny had dissipated and she roused to consciousness to see the great wizard Harry Potter in a staring contest with a bean. "I must've been hit harder than I thought…I'm going to go back to sleep now…"

Harry who had seen Ginny fall back into sleep and turned to face her and broke contact with the bean: shit! The Colonel bean was victor had decided a quick trample over the two humans who had intruded into its territory and pounced ready to roll.

The others followed suit and Harry had only a few seconds to grab at Ginny and run toward the portal. Turning he wrapped his arms about her waist and carried her sluggish form across the room, narrowly missing the onslaught.

Flinging them both on the portal he grabbed at his wand, now broken in Ginny's hand, and muttered a quick spell, not sure of its consequence but not caring at the slightest.

He suddenly felt a pull at his chest as his and Ginny's body was flung into another room: hopefully leading him to the exit. He opened his eyes to a dark room and a withering figure beneath him. He breathed a sigh of relief: she was alive.

"Harry?" Ginny stirred.

He looked down at the brunette sleepy beneath him, "Stay awake Ginny, come on." He gently slapped at her face. "GINNY!"

"Ouch Harry, my ears…"

"Come on, you may have a concussion, you can't sleep…'

"But it feels so nice, just a few minutes Harry…I had this weird dream with beans…"

"Weasley!" He shook her shoulders roughly and pulled her up into a sitting position against his chest. "If it were another time, then yeah, I could do with the quiet: but for now… Ginny!"

She slowly opened her eyes and closed them again: he was losing her so did the only thing he knew how to do: he kissed her.

* * *

SouredSweetie


	3. Ahoy there Captain Pasty: Surf's up!

**The Sweet Escape**

_CHAPTER 3:_

_Ahoy there Captain Pasty: surfs up!_

* * *

**BE AWARE: SMOOTH SAILING… IS SORT OF NOT AHEAD…YOU CANT BLAME US THOUGH, WELL YOU COULD, BUT HONESTLY IT WOULDN'T BE VERY NICE.**

**THE ONLY WAY UP… IS DOWN… A WHIRLPOOL …AND THAT HAPPENS TO BE YOUR ONLY WAY OUT TOO. HA!...BUT THAT'S IF YOU SURVIVE… **

**OH WELL, THAT'S WHY THERE'S A WARNING SIGN.**

_**~ Sincerely Fred and George Weasley; founders of WWW**_

* * *

He kissed her…

Or that was his plan, but unfortunately for him, something had clamped itself on his backside.

"Yeeow!" Harry cried and tried to detach the vice –like 'thing' off. He searched his robe for his wand, hissing in pain all the while, and lit it with a '_lumos_'.

The room was empty. Black, bleak walls, cobble flooring and a single light feet up high above him was its only decor. If he hadn't known better, he'd have thought it was some sort of prison cell- and boy, didn't he know a couple of sweets who should be thrown in it.

He had almost forgotten the pain in his bottom, until it a sharp sting spasmed across it. He fell to the floor, cursing the whole time, before twisting painfully to hit the 'pain-in-his-arse' with a powerful spell. It let off a tiny screech and let go.

Harry turned around, ready to pound the thing senseless. What he saw momentarily surprised him, until he remembered that he was, in fact, in a sweets factory with large, mutant rampaging lunatic lollies planning murder.

A large, circular pie-thing, about half his size bounded its way towards Harry's side. It suddenly opened, what seemed to be, its mouth- for it was the part where the top of the pastry joined the bottom, revealing a spongy orange mush inside, surrounded by sharp pieces of what seemed to be crusty pumpkin skin. (Harry could support this theory, as he picked out some of this crusty-stuff from his robe and tasted it: yep-good old pumpkin!)

It came charging at him, bobbing up and down; mushy pumpkin oozing out of its folds. Harry tried to laugh: it was a sight! But considering this was a homicidal pumpkin pasty, he couldn't find the situation at all entertaining.

Suddenly remembering he wasn't alone in the room, he glanced down at Ginny, who lay unconscious- unaware of the evil pumpkin pasty trying to kill them. He quickly bent down, muscles flexing and picked her up, hissing in pain. His backside was bleeding; he could feel it oozing down the back of his legs.

Pumpkin Pasty and some blood on the side: a new variation of blood sausage? He thought hysterically and searched for an exit route from the prison.

He ran all around the room with Ginny in his arms, his bottom pounding, but found no exit in sight. The Pumpkin Pasty was gaining on him- and he couldn't take much more, he started to feel dizzy; but still he ran, hoping...until he came to a wall, trapped.

He could do little more when he heard a screeching sound of gurgling mush, as his world turned to darkness: taking Ginny with him.

He was on a boat, sailing toward the horizon. The day was warm, the sun lightly tanning his body: the sea calm, he opened his eyes. Ron and Hermione were with him- just like at was at Hogwarts, the good old times.

Hermione had just turned Ron into a rat and was trying to step on him: serves you right you prat, he heard her say. Harry was laughing, Hermione had an evil gleam in her eye, and Ron was panicking.

The suddenly the waters got rough, the sky black; the boat tilting with force as a wave came crashing down. They fell to their knees as the boat hit an object. He felt his body being thrown into the harsh waters, he tried to swim up...he made it…then the boat was sinking...on top of him...he couldn't get out…it was forcing him down…his breath was straining…he took a breath and swallowed water…he felt his body convulse he couldn't do anything…a green light flashed…

He jolted awake. It was dark; a sharp buttery smell of cooked pastry and something else wafted in the air…he tried to move but was wedged in a space with only enough room to move his arms slightly.

What he had imagined were waves rocking him back and forth was, in fact, reality- he was staring to get dizzy with the motion. The area around was soft and moist; he grazed his hands about him, slippery like moss. Then that familiar scent- PUMPKIN.

"Oh what in Hades Hell is this…!" Harry cried- he seemed slightly stressed. Agitated even. Then he had an epiphany, he looked up and his lips thinned. He was _in_ the god-dammed pasty! "Well, at least it's warm." He sighed and kicked the pasty. He heard a screech. _Good._ It deserved it. "That's what you get for trying to digest a human being, you stupid blob of pumpkin-scum."

He lay there for a few minutes, well, it didn't look like the mushy pumpkin was digesting him, and so he saw fit to take his time. He felt hopeless…wasn't someone supposed to be here with him?

"Ginny!"

He started to kick the pastry walls, with difficulty as the force was subdued by the mush, but with a little perseverance, he freed himself: He was Harry Potter for Merlin's sake!

He cursed, "What he hell?" he was in the same room as before…but…he looked down. Gone was the stone flooring, in lieu of a sea of transparent brown liquid. With over a hundred Pumpkin Pasties floating on top of it. "Oh just great." He groaned. Ginny was in one of these…

"Ginny!" he called repeatedly. "Ginny!" standing on top of the Pumpkin Pasty, he had no idea how he was going to reach the others: his broom was broken because of that mutant frog. Looking down at the muggy water, or he thought, diluted diarrhea, it somehow didn't seem very appealing to swim in.

"Harry!" he heard a muffled cry.

"Ginny!" he searched around, "where are you?"

"How in the world should I know! I can't see anything!" well he figured that much.

"It's a Pumpkin Pasty: try kicking it. That's how I broke through." He yelled.

Ginny scowled. "Do you make it a frequent endeavor to get trapped in Pumpkin Pasties?" she tried to move, but found she couldn't. "I'm trapped tight!"

"Just keep talking so I know where you are!" he called, looking around for some sort of aid. Unsurprisingly, when you're stuck on a pie-like thing in the middle of brown water, help is a little out of reach. He saw a pasty floating its way toward him, and struck by an idea, stood back and took a great leap.

He wobbled a bit as he landed, and then seeing a few more floating within jumping distance, he leapt onto them toward Ginny, like some sort of demented grasshopper.

Ginny meanwhile was talking to herself, "where did I go wrong in life? I mean, at what point, does life decide to throw you into, not the deep end, but into a Pumpkin Pasty, and where do you go from here? Do Pasty's have excretory systems? I wonder if I taste nice? Id rather thought, that if I were eaten that I would taste of spiced apples and cheese…HARRY!"

He heard her, she much closer by. He decided to annoy her, perhaps she'd get mad enough and fight her way through? "Sorry, I've just taken a rest, I don't know about you, but the past few hours have been rather hard on me." He hopped onto another pasty floating by.

Her eye twitched. "When I get out of here Harry, so help me Merlin I am going to force feed you chocolate frogs, and armpit flavoured Bertie Beans and roasted pumpkin!" she tried to beat her rage out on the pasty but it had no avail. She heard a splash. "Whatever liquid is out there to have made that sound I hope you fell into it!"

But he didn't hear her, he had in fact, fell into the water. He emerged out of the substance, choking on it as he took a big breath. He latched onto a Pasty and hauled himself up.

Ginny felt a weight over her and panicked. "Harry is that you?"

"Ginny?" he felt around the top of the pasty for her body: reassuring himself he wasn't hearing things.

"You move your hands any further down and I may have to injure you." She laughed relieved he had found her. "Now get me out."

"A please, would be nice." He drawled and started tearing at the pastry. It was much stronger than his own, that he felt his muscles strain against it. "This ones a bit tougher than mine, perhaps it's been overcooked?

"HARRY!" she yelled. It wasn't her fault she was overly sensitive, she had pumpkin mush up almost all of the orifices in her body.

"Okay, okay," he muttered, finally the solid wall broke away, and he grabbed at her hands hauling her up.

A wave knocked them aside and Ginny fell on top of Harry. She had mush all over her back, her hair wild and clammy, and yet she smelled good enough to eat. At the moment he didn't care where the hell they were: though he was quite sure they were in it, he wanted her. Grabbing the nape of her neck, he bent his head towards her own, pressing his lips to hers. She tasted unsurprisingly of sweetened pumpkin, and deepened the kiss.

Not needing any further encouragement her tongue entered his mouth, only to be met by his: caressing, battling in frustration and a fiery passion and longing over the last lost years, when deep down they'd known they should never have ended it.

Ginny's hands found their way under his torn shirt, tracing along the muscles of his chest, down to the waistband of his trousers. He growled against her mouth, and brought his lips down her neck, his tongue and teeth sucking and nibbling gently as she arched towards him.

"You taste like Butterbeer." She sighed and held his head towards her neck.

He nuzzled her neck, "And the great thing is, its all natural."

Ginny rolled her eyes and got off him, though very clumsily, she was quite dizzy: an easy feat these days. Blushing at her wantonness, she sat on the other side of the large pasty and looked everywhere but at Harry; her mind whirling with emotions and confusion.

She shrugged off her dirty shirt and tied it around her waist, thankfully; her tank top wasn't crusty with pumpkin filling. She sighed as she ran a hand through her hair: cursing as it got caught in a giant knot of mush and goo.

He smirked as he watched her struggle, damn that hand was wedged in pretty tight. "Here let me help you."

She didn't like the laughing tone of his voice. "No!" she said hastily as he leaned over to her. She still hadn't recovered form his kiss. "I'll manage."

"Suit yourself," he shrugged, though the laughter never quite left his eyes as he watched her struggle for the next few minutes before almost ripping out half of her hair. She looked like a little girl, her face frowning, lips pursed and the freckles around her nose more visible and she scrunched it. "You'd look good bald."

"Humph! I don't see how you can be so calm Harry." She flung her arms about. "We're sitting on a giant Pumpkin Pasty…a PUMPKIN PASTY HARRY!...floating in a sea of…" she cupped her hand into the water and brought it to her lips. Harry squirmed as she drank it: for he was convinced it was diluted diarrhea. "Butterbeer?"

"Huh?" he raised a brow.

"It's Butterbeer. Here," she repeated her actions and brought her hand to his mouth, "try some."'

He moved her hand away, "Nooooo thanks. I think I filled myself up with the Bertie Beans."

She wiped her hands on her shirt. "Suit yourself."

They stayed like that in silence for what seemed to be forever. He was laying on his back glaring at the ceiling, hoping that something or someone would come and help them. At the moment, he couldn't be bothered doing anything…

Ginny was getting agitated. She had counted 200 smaller Pumpkin Pasties floating silently in the water….almost too still for her not to get suspicious. "This is too weird."

"What? the fact we're in a mutant factory or the fact that I'm starving even though all we've come across is food."

"No, the fact nothing is happening to us."

He closed his eyes, "I quite like it."

She splashed Butterbeer on his face. He got up. "What the hell was that for?"

"I felt like it! Don't you want to get out of here!?" her eyes blazed with fury. When he grabbed her shoulders and stared at her, she thought he was going to kiss her again.

But he didn't. Oh he would've, but his time he was afraid he may just go the next step. He lay back down, folding his hands behind his head.

She was too busy glaring at him to notice the movements around her. "Oh my…Harry look…"

He was almost too scared to. "Oh shit." Hundreds of beady looking eyes were glaring in their direction, the sea of Butterbeer now hidden as hundreds of Pumpkin Pasties huddled together floating on the liquid.

"Harry we have to get away…" Ginny said.

Harry grabbed her hand as they moved back. Ginny slipped as they reached the edge of the pasty, almost into the sea of Butterbeer but he had caught her in time. She looked up at him in thanks, but not before she saw a little green light deep in the water where she slipped. "Harry I think there's something down there."

He had seen it too. But how where they supposed to get under when they were surrounded by pasties? Heck, how were they supposed to breathe and see…well, he knew a spell, but doubted Ginny would appreciate the darkness of it.

"Come." He grabbed her hand and slowly stepped onto a near pasty. The little eyes were watching him; quite frankly, he was getting annoyed. He just wanted to get out of this bloody place, and around every corner there was some demented...thing!

Uh oh. Ginny screamed as its huge mouth opened, revealing sharp, crust teeth and slammed it down again, just missing her foot. "Harry!"

He cursed, not again! Wrenching her hand he dragged her running across the sea of pasties, pulling her along before their mouths clamped down on them,

It was an extraordinary sight, mounds of yellow and orange, bouncing up and down, spilling out brown liquid: like a school of fish near the surface. Ginny had no time to admire the scene as a pasty jumped before her, butting Harry into the sea of Butterbeer.

"Harry!" she looked around bewildered, but didn't see his face. "Harry! Ow!" a pasty bumped into her side. "Watch it!" she kicked it, with the full force of her foot. Damn, she should've played Muggle soccer. As if sensing one of their kind down, the others turned on her and hurled themselves at her. "Oh geez…HARRY!"

He was under a Pumpkin pasty in the sea of Butterbeer, struggling to breath. He had swallowed so much Butterbeer, he'd hate it forever. With all his strength, he pushed up out of the water, inhaling only a small gasp of air before his head slammed into the bottom of a pasty. Harry opened his eyes under water and, holding his breath, swam in order to find a crevice he could call out to: but there was none. He repeated the same movements as before and called out to her, instead of claiming a breath.

She saw him in the corner of her eye as she dodged another attack. Unfortunately for her, the pasty still had some dignity and clamped onto her leg, tearing her jeans and a lot of skin as it slid down. "AHH!" she screamed and with all her strength, slammed a hand into one of its beady eyes. It released her and she hobbled toward Harry, wincing as blood oozed out of her leg.

"Harry," she called helplessly and jumped onto the nearest pasty. She used all her remaining strength to force the other pasty away in order to make a gap from him to emerge through. Though it was quite difficult when the damned thing was trying to eat your arm off.

She stuck in her arm, hoping he'd see it and latch on. Though he didn't. She started to panic. Then heard him a few pasties over and called out his name, quickly telling him to come back…she didn't think he heard it, as quick as he was up, the pasty pushed him back down again.

She fell forward as a pasty threw itself at her back. "Bloody hell!" she found her balance and looked around quickly…she saw his wand. She hurried over to it and lost her footing, falling into the sea of Butterbeer…

He saw a splash and knew instantly it was her. His eyes stinging as he looked under water, he moved toward Ginny. Her legs were in the water, while the rest of her was clinging helplessly to a pumpkin pasty. He saw the blood.

On a positive note, her falling had left an opening in the sea and gripping her waist, he hauled her onto the pasty, before pulling himself up against a smaller one.

He smiled at her, before falling back.

"Harry!" Ginny called and shook him from her pasty.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright." He muttered, running a hand through his hair.

She flushed, "Geez Harry," she sighed, "you scared me back then."

He didn't respond. He was scared too. He silently cursed, from the corner of his eye; he could see they weren't out of the pits yet. Out the other eye, he saw his wand. He wondered if he had the strength to reach it.

He had no time to think, he reached over with every ounce and flung a curse at the Pumpkin Pasty chomping its way toward Ginny. It fell into the water with a thud. "Anyone else?!" Anger bubbling in his veins, he flung a curse at the rest of the pasties with one single powerful spell, which caused them all to fling back into the darkness with a single piercing screech.

Ginny, for once, could not say a word. She simply stared at Harry, unaccustomed to the severe rage in his eyes, and the dark magic of which he knew. She shrank back in fear and awe.

Everything froze: not a soul moved, save for the fierce beating of their hearts. There was no noise, only a deadly silence, unsettling their already disturbed bodies. They were both bleeding and cut, tired and sore.

Ginny struggled to regain composure; her leg was throbbing, she loosened the shirt around her waist and tied it around the wound tight. Then she heard it…felt it…a deep vibration brooding from afar. The pensive look on Harry's face told her he heard it to.

She let out a sob and fell onto the pasty, "we're trapped Harry. There's no where to go. I can't do this anymore."

He kneeled down in front of her and shook her shoulders. "Yes you can, come on Ginny; don't give up on me now."

Her shoulders hung as she glanced up at his face. There were bags underneath his bright green eyes, which themselves, looked dull. It seemed as if he had aged ten years in what she thought, were just a few hours. His black hair was even messier with chunks of Bertie Bott syrup and pumpkin mash. She couldn't help but smile at their helplessness. "I'd just be in denial Harry…"

He traced his thumbs over her face, her eyes, lips, forehead, in a lovingly gesture, reminiscent of the years back when they'd been dating. His heart ached. He knew she was right, but dammit, they were Gryffindor's, brave, courageous souls…yet they were being defeated by confectionary nonetheless. He pulled her into his arms, though it was difficult seeing they were on different pasties and simply held her. That's all he could do.

Ginny closed her eyes and clung to the man she loved- because well let's face it, she did. "Harry I-" she stopped. The noise was becoming louder…more thunderous. She wondered why Harry didn't turn to look at the 5m giant wave of Butterbeer speeding toward them. She was beyond screaming: but she couldn't take her eyes off of it.

Harry, though hearing the thundering noise, was slightly distracted at the vibrating beneath them. He felt a sudden pull below them, as their pasty boat started to whirl around in a circle. "Oh geez."

"Harry don't look behind you."

He did, releasing Ginny. He laughed at the giant wave, out of helplessness. "Well then I don't suppose you want to look around you."

She didn't. She felt her whole body being tugged around in a dizzying circle. Round and round they went in the whirlpool, constantly looking at the giant wave now upon them. "I lo…" her voice was lost as her body flung off the pasty and into the water, swirling around in its merciless mirth.

"Ginny!" Harry yelled. He couldn't grab hold of her hand…the shadow of the wave loomed before him…he took a deep breath and closed his eyes waiting to die.

But before the wave crashed down upon him, his stomach lurched as his body too was flung into the water. The last thing he could remember was smiling in irony as the green light he and Ginny had seen below the water read EXIT, as Butterbeer poured into his lungs and he couldn't breath anymore and all went black.

* * *

SouredSweetie


	4. Goodness Glaciers Great Balls of Gum

**The Sweet Escape**

_CHAPTER 4:_

_Goodness Glaciers Great Balls of Bubblegum_

* * *

His head was throbbing. His clothes were damp and he still had damned pumpkin-goo up his arse.

Cursing and spluttering, Harry managed to sit up, barely, damning gravity and confectionary alike. _Up too fast, _he groaned, holding his pounding head as the world around him spun. Harry remembered laying on a Pastie, staring up at a dark ceiling before a wave of Butterbeer swept him under. He damn well remembered that green light that laughingly flashed "Exit" before...nothing.

He'd thought he was going to die- who knows perhaps he was dead?- maybe he had never entered that bloody factory and one of his admirers has used an unforgivable on him and he was stuck in hell- a rundown factory with killer frogs, beans and pies? But then, why was Ginny here?

"Ginny!" he called, scrambling drunkenly to his feet. "Ginny!"

"Bloody Hell," he heard from a distance and automatically recognised the infamous Weasley phrase and hurried- though groggily- toward the sound. When he saw her, her clothes soaked with Butterbeer, her hair tangled with pumpkin goo and her face marred with faint bruises; well, he'd never thought he'd seen a more beautiful sight. He started laughing out of pure joy and relief, and grabbed her in his arms, kissed her soundly and spun her around in the air.

"Harry! What-" she started and muffled a curse when Harry fell to the floor, dragging her with him.

"I probably shouldn't have done that." His head was still spinning mad.

"The kiss or the harassment?"

Harry managed to lie on his side and looked down at her beside him, wiping away the dirt. "Well technically the latter, though I should probably say the former, just because women are funny about stuff like that," He shook his head. "Merlin Gin, I thought I'd lost you back there..." he brought his forehead to hers and nuzzled her cheek.

Ginny was touched; truth be told she was scared too. Grabbing his head, she brought his lips to her own.

There was no force to the kiss, no overt sexuality as their tongues entwined, just a slow and drugging kiss that communicated more feeling than words ever could. She softly bit his bottom lip as she let go and gently kissed his cheeks, nose and forehead. "You taste like Butterbeer."

Harry groaned and let his weight off her, "who'd have thought it? Swimming in a sea of Butterbeer and then tasting like it. I simply can't make the connection." He rolled his eyes, stood and held a hand to help her up.

Ginny glared at him, but still held on. "Almost dead and still a smartarse."

He winked, "But you love me anyway."

"Fool that I am," Ginny folded her arms and stared at Harry; almost laughing at his obvious shock and unease. She should let him suffer, but the fact was she was a little hurt he didn't reciprocate. "So now where are we?"

Too busy contemplating her confession and too annoyed at himself for not easing the hurt on her face, with the three simple words he had it in him to say, he hadn't even noticed the room they were currently in. Unlike the others it was filled with bright lights and windows- though not a trace of how they entered in the first place. Walking over to the large window, he peered out and saw the crowd of women hanging outside the factory calling his name. By the look of it all, only a few minutes had passed since they had entered- though it felt like a lot more.

"Got to give them credit for their persistence," Ginny muttered, shielding her eyes from the glare. "Now how do we signal them to get us out? They can't see us; we're about ten stories up."

Harry wondered what was worse, killer sweets or an army of pre-pubescent teens. It was a close call. His wand was broken so it was risky to use any magic, there was no furniture to try break down the glass- but there was a roof and an annoyed woman and oddly enough three and a half solid walls to...three and a half walls?

Harry started to the "half" wall- which was actually a large black solid wall with a giant gap in the middle and smelled oddly like Liquorice Wands- and cursed. "Ginny, I think you'd better get over here quickly."

Lost in thought and glaring at the women outside, Ginny barely registered Harry's worried tone. Her eyes snapped toward him as he pointed to a tiny plaque on the dark wall. "'Please' would have been nice; you may have almost lost your life, but that is no reason to lose your manners."

In a Hermione-like snit, she strode toward Harry and looked down, her left eye twitched.

**MUST SAY, WE'RE PRETTY SURPRISED YOU'VE MADE IT THIS FAR. AND A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED IF I MAY SAY SO MYSELF- I'D HAVE THOUGHT BERTOLD THE BEAN WOULD'VE SQUASHED YOU, OH WELL I OWE FRED SOME QUID.**

**STOP WHINGING GEORGE. YOU HAVE ONE MORE OBSTACLE TO FACE- PERHAPS WE SHOULD PLURAL THAT...IT'S EASY TO GET LOST, EVEN EASIER TO BREAK DOWN THE WALLS...BUT BY THE END, YOU'LL BE FREE. IT'LL BE AS EASY AS TAKING CANDY FROM A BABY.**

_**~ Sincerely Fred and George Weasley; founders of WWW**_

"Those two idiots! I should've have known this was their secret investment property they bought with that money that you gave them." She jabbed a finger to his chest. "This is your entire fault; if you hadn't given them the 1000 galleons...I could kill them!" As soon as she said it, she winced. Fred was already dead...but she'd grieved enough and knew if he saw her now he'd be laughing his arse off.

Harry decided not to press her. "I've taken a look and it seems to be a maze of some sort. These walls-" he scraped a chunk of the malleable surface, "are probably made of Liquorice Wands, if the sweets theme continues." Merlin he hoped so, as he took a bite. Yep, thank heavens it was liquorice and not a sick joke of the twins with a surprise flavour. "We can't break through and I'm sure neither of us wants to eat our way out, so we have to go in." Ginny looked hesitant. "It's the only way."

Still fuming at the twins' idea of a sick joke, Ginny walked through the hole leaving Harry to follow behind. They'd been walking steadily when Ginny suddenly stopped. Harry slammed into her.

"What the-?" he looked up to see giant transparent round balls of all colours, some floating in the air, others clinging to each other. God, Harry mused, he hoped they were merely decorative features.

Grabbing Ginny's hand he slowly made their way through, cringing whenever they met a dead end of a black liquorice wall, and had to retrace their steps out. It was like swimming through a school of jellyfish, trying to avoid the sting.

"We should probably stop and ask for directions," Ginny muttered, hysterical, her heart thumping hard against her chest- which she supposed was a good thing, else she'd be dead- and leant against a wall to gain composure. She hadn't even felt the dull throbbing in her leg where the Pumpkin Pastie sliced her: she felt so numb.

The suspense of waiting for the next attack was getting to Ginny, and she shifted against the wall. It felt much softer than the past ones they had walked by and there was an icy draft coming through. Glancing around the room again, she stared at the immoveable bubbles and wondered what they were. She saw Harry searching his cloak for his broken wand and hadn't noticed a giant bubble float their way. Until of course she looked up and screamed, falling back hard against the wall, before it gave way beneath her. What the hell was it with magic walls and more importantly her falling through them?!

Harry sighed, sounding bored and picked her up. "You know you really must find a new source of amusement; this whole wall thing is getting tiresome. Although now we do have somewhere to pass through..." he left her to her own devices and looked into the next maze.

Ginny noted the sudden breeze in the air, enough to freeze the smallest of objects; and shivered, ignoring Harry and turned back to the room of bubbles being blown all over the place by the gust and, much to her dismay, growing in size. She groaned, knowing what they were and the bubble stuck to Harry's back confirmed it.

"It's bubblegum Harry, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum," she went to Harry and tried to pry the ball of gum off his back, though it stuck tight. She managed to pop it, though now the gum clung to her. It felt like a spider's web: you could feel but couldn't find. The gum was one of her favourite sweets, there was something nagging her at the back of her mind about it and the cold, something about hardening...the thought was lost as another chill went through her.

Harry allowed her to struggle with the gum- not a fan of it himself. In fact he was annoyed he didn't feel it sooner. He heard her muttering before he heard her scream.

Ginny was knocked down by a hard ball of gum and it hurt like a bitch. "Oh lovely," she was pummelled down by another, which though filled with air, felt like a brick.

"Don't look now Gin, but we are about to be bombarded by balls of gum," he hauled her up and pushed her through the broken wall. Looking back he saw over 50 gumballs bouncing their way towards them, flying off walls, along the ground, ricocheting so hard they flew up into the air before being pulled down and shattering into tiny razor sharp pieces of iced gum as they hit the floor.

Harry and Ginny kept running despite being slashed and cut, both cursing as they reached a dead end. Not stopping long enough, they ran back and onto another route also hitting a dead end as the gum bounced and shattered their way towards them.

Ginny's legs numbed at the cold, but where it came from she had no idea; all she did know was that she and Harry were trapped in a maze-like room where the temperature was close to zero, their backs against the wall.

"Notice it's a little chilly?"

Ginny glared at him, she left all the liquid in her body turn to ice. The moron must've been thick skinned not to have noticed this five minutes before. "I shall not dignify that question with an answer, besides this one which really is a mockery of your supposed intelligence than a response." She folded her arms and glared. They were safe for the time being, the little crevice they had hidden in was sheltered enough from the breeze and gum. "Oh Harry, is his the end of our great adventure?" she said melodramatically and winced as the wall in front of them was shattered by the gum. They had found them.

"Not until the fat lady eats a salad," Harry shoved them down just as he speeding balls were about to hit them, and instead smashed into the wall behind them. The impact of over ten gumballs breaking into sharp shreds cut away at the wall, leaving it brittle enough to hack away. Shielding Ginny from the falling pieces, Harry grabbed a large chunk and hacked away at the now breakable wall.

Ginny didn't think, which at times wasn't at all unusual, but when she did, it was fair to say, the unexploited brain came up with ideas that, had she bother to frequently use it, may have been slightly unhinged. With a new batch of gumballs floating their way toward them, Ginny whipped out Harry's broken wand from his pocket and, praying to Merlin that it worked, transfigured a shard of icy liquorice into a large bat. She stood up, raising it above her shoulder, getting ready to fire.

"What the hell are you doing?" Harry demanded, though still cut away at the wall. Only a bit more...

"I am planning to hit them," her grip tightened on the base of the bat. The twins had taught her how to hit a bludger, and with the Harpies she'd learned to play as a Beater, how hard could smacking a few gumballs be?

"When this is done I am going to hit _you_," he was annoyed, he'd been trying to shelter her, now she thought she was going to protect him! It cut away at his pride!

_Bugger,_ Ginny thought and got ready to swing the bat. But shit were they big. Putting in all energy into the swing, Ginny hit the oncoming gum balls which shattered on contact. The impact went through her hands and up to her shoulders, geez; they weren't bricks but rather boulders. Having no time to adjust she hit another one, which didn't break but went flying off to hit another. And so a few more hurled their way toward her, and she, ignoring the pain, hit them across the other side of the room.

"Done!" Harry exclaimed and, grabbing her, pushed her through the tiny gap before the next onslaught of homicidal gumballs came.

"Oi! I was getting good at that," she cried as Harry made his way through the small hole. Slowly both stood, wincing at the sound of shattering ice behind them. "You know you could've warned me before you threw me through the hole."

His face cut and bleeding, his bones weak, he glared at Ginny. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't have time for a bloody consultation, you know getting squashed by bubblegum isn't really my forte."

She glared at him and shoved his wand in her pocket as well as her hands to stave off the cold. Her hands clenched around a bunch of paper and she took it out in curiosity. She started to laugh.

"What?" Harry asked annoyed.

She handed him the piece of paper. It was the wrapping of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. It read: _Warning, do not keep in temperatures below 10C. Gum balls harden and become brittle: may damage teeth._

Well she was grateful and she was relieved that the maze they had been walking through the past fifteen minutes was a safe zone; but she was more hysterical than either so ignored their luck, knowing danger could loom a wall away. It really wasn't a maze, she thought as she hit a dead end, but rather an amusement park for two morons and their montage of carnivorous junk. She was so mad, she hadn't notice what she'd walk into.

"Get back here Gin," Harry commanded. "Now."

For once she listened. The gap they had just walked through had shut behind them, encasing them in a dark room, lit only by red candles glowing in lanterns on the walls. Hip-height Cauldron cakes lined the edges of the room, a thick, rich smelling brew boiled in their doughy centre- or so she assumed, for smoke was emanating out of them and at the centre of the room Harry's arch nemesis: the Giant, carnivorous- yet delectably tasty Chocolate Frog.

"So we meet again," Harry said, arms folded and glaring at the frog. "I see you've gotten off your back and reverted to your amphibious form: well done." He said it so seriously Ginny had trouble stifling a laugh. "Ginny this is between the beast and I." He nodded toward the other side of the room where there was a visible path to another room. All they had to do was defeat the frog and they could precede. "Head on through, this is between the big men now."

Ginny raised a brow, "more like big morons actually." But she made no room to move.

"Damn it Gin, go!" He still glared at frog, knowing through his past experiences eye-contact was important and added for measure, "please?"

"Oh this'll be good," but at least he was learning his manners, she thought and stormed past Harry but not before he grabbed her and brought his lips to hers hard, for a moment, still glaring at the frog. "I love you Gin."

Her heart skipped a beat, as he pushed her forward and she mockingly bowed at the frog. She felt like jumping for joy- but was afraid the floor would break underneath her like it had the first time they entered the factory- as well as being annoyed. "Fine time to say it, just when he's planning to battle to the death with a giant frog," she muttered and leaned against a cauldron cake. She peered inside to see a thick, syrup boiling, the steam making the room at least 20C warmer.

Meanwhile Harry and Francis, as Harry had dubbed him, were having a face off. "So this is your crib? Nice place, a little hot though, never pictured you the Goth type, but each to his own. Perhaps I should call you Frankenstein the Frog- personally I'm a great fan of alliteration." Harry circled Frank, the frogs beady chocolate eyes never left his. "So tell me Frankie, how'd it feel being a cockroach? Don't feel like talking? You're not very hospitable, it's rude..."

"Oh put a sock in it Harry and let's go," Ginny muttered from the side, her foot tapping impatiently against a cauldron cake.

"This is a delicate situation Gin, we must establish that I am the dominant here,' he made the mistake of breaking eye contact and the frog made his move. With its long tongue it lashed out at Harry and sent him sprawling across the room, his body aching from the impact as he hit a very solid wall. "Son of a Cocoa Bean!" and leapt away before the frog struck again.

Ginny, meanwhile was ignoring the commotion and had picked up a shard of frozen liquorice that had clung to her and was filing her nails of all the pumpkin goo- though it started to melt. She tried to ignore Harry's annoyed cries for assistance, after all it was his own fault for acting like an idiot, but decided to help the fool. Watching Harry climb atop the frog and pummelling its head she cried, "What do you want me to do? Join you? It's not a Hippogriff you know!" she slammed her hands hard against the Cauldron Cake and it toppled over. "Oh dear." She whimpered as boiling hot syrup oozed its way out of the cauldron.

The syrup slowly made its way toward Harry and the Frog, and he saw Ginny staring dumfounded and called out, "Go and topple the others-" the frog hopped sideways to escape the heat as the humidity was beginning to melt him. "Go now!"

"Alright, alright sheesh!" Ginny took her time walking around the room, avoiding the hot syrup by staying along the walls, knocking down the cauldrons. The heat was slowly burning her hands; she didn't think she could handle the substantial temperature changes. She paused and contemplated such a waste of confectionary: too bad they turned rampant.

"I DONT HAVE ALL DAY GINNY!" Harry yelled, knowing she was doing it on purpose, while he could barely grip the melting chocolate. The frog was going mad now, and he almost fell sorry for it. Not.

"Well I do," but hurried up to knock over the final ones and smiled triumphantly, "there!"

Harry jumped off the frog, narrowly missing the molten sea of chocolate and boiling syrup. Unfortunately he didn't share her enthusiasm; the treacherous heat in the room was not only melting the frog but the walls too. Soon they'd fall and he and Gin would be trapped beneath them. "Come on let's go."

There were two exits they could leave by. Unfortunately they had to make do with going back into the ice room as the other was too far away; and had almost reached it before the chocolate frog- which was now a large puddle- sought its final revenge, lashing its tongue at the far wall and bringing it crashing down towards them: luckily they made it.

"You know that might've been a nice sentiment, if it wasn't trying to kill us: you know to give us a bridge to walk over."

"Ginny if we survive this," Harry panted, still having not recovered from his ride on the frog, "I am going to throttle you."

They winced as the wall hit the molten floor, creating a large wave of boiling syrup that fortunately froze before it reached them.

"We've been pretty lucky you know," she ignored Harry's raised brow; "it all evens out. The ice froze the gum, which broke the wall for our exit; the cauldron mixture melted the frog and the liquorice wall, which created a bridge for us over the melted syrup."

"Yes it all works out nicely in the end doesn't it?" Harry fell to the floor and lay on his back.

She thrust her arms on her hips, "you know it serves you right. If you hadn't been acting like a macho-macho idiot man you wouldn't have copped a bruising from Fredo."

"Frank," Harry corrected, yawning. "Ah my life should be interesting; I'll have an irritating wife who believes being mauled by confectionary is a justified punishment; nightmares about amphibians and my children will hate me for not letting them eat sweets. Pleasant."

Ginny froze almost slipping over some melted stuff, "what did you just say Potter?"

Harry opened an eye, "you heard me sweetheart, and close your mouth the wind'll freeze your pretty little face."

Chauvinistic prig. "Are you asking me to marry you?"

Harry shook his head and yawned again: Ginny's eye twitched, and he found it hard to suppress a smile. "No I'm telling you." he got up and started forward, she didn't move. "Now hurry it up love, move along." He pushed her forward.

"Of all the self-absorbed, machismo..."Ginny muttered and followed him. Too bad she couldn't stay angry at him; she'd let him get away with it for the time being- then he'd have it when they married. She laughed evilly as they made their way across the slippery frozen syrup to the other entrance.

"Well, well, the end it nigh," Harry muttered when they reached it. The twins seemed to have an affinity for all things slippery, giant and icy. The room was very large and stark white- and the cold breeze was back. The floor ahead was a pool of frozen Butterbeer, with all their enemies, consisting of: Pumpkin Pasties and Bertie Bott Beans on top. He knew once they stepped onto the rink, the sweets would attack. Harry wondered if they were the same they had fought before, as it's seemed in this final frontier they would come across all the demon confectionery they had before.

"We need a plan." Harry said.

"Hmm, okay. Well I was thinking roses for my bouquet, Hermione for the maid of honour, Bill's girls as the flower girls, a honeymoon to Australia..." he sent an unamused look at her. "Look, why don't we just make a run for it, jump over the beans, slide the pasties over to the other side as a make-shaft shield and if that doesn't work, push the pasties into the beans like bocce balls and bolt."

Harry looked thoughtful, "Good idea." And pulled her alone. He was right, one step onto the ice and the beans were rolling towards them at flying speeds. "Jump!" he yelled, though both struggled to stand upright when they hit the ice, but managed to hurdle their way along to the other side of the room.

"I wasn't being serious!" Ginny huffed, slipping and sliding, and her hand fell out of Harry's as she twisted her ankle.

Harry cursed, "Can you manage to walk to the pasties?" and stared at the new batch of beans that appeared from a wall which opened up.

"Yeah," she said but winced as she rose.

"Well seeing as the beans are blocking the only way out and the pasties are- thankfully- immobile, I don't think we have a choice." Harry picked up Ginny and carefully made his was toward the pasties on the right side of the room. He put her down, and got behind a pasty. "Get ready."

Using the wall as leverage they pushed the pastie into the coming onslaught of beans, knocking them out of the way like bowling pins. "And again" moving toward a large pastie they grabbed onto the crust and ran with it, building up speed running it toward the larger beans. "Get ready to jump."

As the pasty started to slide against the ice, Harry and Ginny jumped onto it and let it glide, knocking the beans over and above them. Closing in on the exit, Harry whooped for joy. Thanks to his new source of transport: the Pastie Puck 2000 with surround crust and a 13000g turbo cylinder engine motored by pumpkin mush. Wicked.

His joy was short lived as their pasty hit a wall and they were flung off, only to be trapped against a wall, not made of liquorice but brick with damned exit sign flashing, but no door out.

Ginny grabbed his hand and squeezed tight. He turned around. They were all there. Bertie Beans, Pumpkin Pasties snapping away, Cauldron Cakes boiling with syrup, Liquorice Wands, balls of Drooble's Gum floating and chocolate frogs simply staring; all stood a hundred feet away, trapping them.

He tried to laugh, he really did. In the scheme of things this final frontier was bloody hilarious. He didn't take his eyes off them.

Ginny didn't share the same sentiment; frantically searching for a way out, another wall she had the habit of breaking, anything! Then she saw it, in the far corner a statue of a baby and in its hand a lollipop. "As easy as taking candy from a baby," she muttered, remembering the final lines of the twins' riddle. "Harry!"

"Shut up Gin," he said through his teeth.

"Fine I won't tell you I found a way out."

"What!?" he looked at her then, and heard a thundering sound. "Oh shit." All the murderous confectionary were rolling, bouncing, floating and sliding toward the two of them, with a giant wave of Butterbeer not too far behind. And suddenly the obstacles of the last few seconds-minutes-hours-days- whatever were merged into the final battle. Harry was not impressed.

This time Ginny grabbed his hand and raced toward the statue. Her legs pounding, her ankle throbbing, she kept going and just as the wave hit, she grabbed onto the lollipop and felt her whole body being torn from this plane to another.

* * *

_**SouredSweetie**_


	5. Ah, Revenge is Sweet

**The Sweet Escape**

**CHAPTER 5:**

_Ah, Revenge is Sweet_

* * *

When she felt herself back in her own body, she opened her eyes and was relieved to find the sun shining in a clear blue sky, with no malicious candies trying to squash or drown them. She could have cried. Instead she looked around for Harry, who'd been holding her hand the whole time, though slightly distracted as he peered over the hedge to spy on his female entourage who's fault it was this ordeal had started in the first place.

"Well who'd have thought the lollipop was a Portkey? It seems so simple compared to what we went through."

"Thank Merlin it was,' Harry wrapped his arms around her tight. "I thought we were goners for sure…'

"Ever the pessimist, I knew we'd get out, that's what redheads are good for. Being rational and level-headed," she smiled and was surprised to see Harry all dirt and goo free. In fact, they were both clean and woundless; it was as if they had never-almost-been-killed-by-sweets.

His earlier words rang through her head and she tensed, as if ready for rejection. It was now or never. "Harry, what you said earlier, about, loving me…were you serious or were you caught up in the moment because you thought you were going to die…or did you really mean it…because if you really meant it, you chose a bloody bad time to say it- having a staring competition with a frog for Merlin's sake…And then telling me I was going to marry you, without even asking! We seriously need to work on your manners Mr. Potter! Because-"

Sensing she wasn't about to shut up, he grabbed her face and traced his tongue around her lips, nibbling on the lower, forcing her to open for him. When she did, he pulled her closer to him, demanding, biting, sucking and touching; exchanging all the love and passion he felt for her while she held onto his shirt.

When they came up for air, she licked her lips then glared at him. "If you think you can shut me up like that you're sorely mistaken! Why, I should push you back into that factory and-" she finally shut up as Harry got down on one knee.

**_"_**If I had known this'd shut you up, I'd have tried it sooner. Ginny I love you and I should've told you before the Factory of Hell, but damn, sometimes a guy needs a good kick- or pumpkin pasty- up the arse to realise what he has in front of him; and those times I thought I lost you- I don't want to think about it," he shook his head. "At the time when we left to find the Horcruxes, leaving you was the right thing to do, but I never stopped loving you, never stopped wanting you, never stopped needing you; and then when it was over, so much had happened, that we needed time to adjust, to say our goodbyes to those we lost, to find ourselves and finally live without fear. My only regret was leaving it for so long, but I'm ready if you'll have me." She smiled and touched his face, knowing that had that had they rekindled their relationship earlier, it would've been too soon. They'd needed this experience to know just what they had and wanted of each other.

"I don't know what sort of husband I'll be, I don't know what the future holds, I'm pretty sure our children will not be consuming any sort of sugary treat and we will not have frogs as pets... but I do know that I love you and I hope that's enough. So Gin, will you marry me?" a wicked glint in his eye, he added, "...please?"

Ginny started to laugh brushing away her tears, her lectures on etiquette paying off! She nodded and cried, "Yes you fool. You had me at 'pumpkin pasty up the arse'- very romantic."

Mimicking her in the factory, he leant his forehead against hers and kissed it, her nose and cheeks. "I'm learning."

The sentiment was broken when he heard shrieks and the calls of his name. Turning he saw the onslaught of pre-pubescent adolescent girls – and the she-man- coming towards them. "Ah bloody hell!"

Grabbing Ginny's hand, he started to run again and Ginny laughed. "Harry they're only girls with a crush; you've faced killer confectionary heaps of times and yet you're more scared of young girls."

That little spiel sounded awfully familiar, like something she had said when they were running toward the factory before this whole ordeal started. He scowled. "I've learned something; nothing is more frightening than a woman with a mission- plural that and you're a dead man."

Ginny rolled her eyes, but ran along with her fiancé. Something's would never change.

* * *

George walked slowly behind the group of girls chasing Harry and Ginny both away and toward the factory: it just depended on what entrance you came across first. He never did like dressing up as a woman, but when you lost a bet with Hermione Granger- you followed through or were transfigured into a rodent.

Hermione had cleverly conjured a group of girls from potted plants in the Weasley garden before setting them on Harry, setting up this whole escapade- placating George that the plan would follow through and Ginny and Harry would venture into the factory. George thought that with her little pranks she would've made an excellent addition to WWW.

George sighed and zapped himself back into men's clothing and looked up at the sky. He missed his brother dearly- he also missed a section of his ear, but currently that was irrelevant. He thought it made him look rather hipster. George smiled, "I know you're watching Fred. You'd probably find it hilarious that our little sister was almost mauled by those damned frogs and beans you created. Actually, it is amusing, but I don't think they'd share the sentiment."

George kicked at a rock, "We all miss you, but you died a hero and-" he turned as footsteps came thundering his way and hurried toward the hedge that Harry proposed behind.

Uh oh, it seemed Harry was dragging Ginny toward the door that started this whole charade…perhaps he should've made the sign bigger? George pondered. Oh well, it was Harry's fault for being a moron and Ginny's for being a lovesick fool for not noticing they were about to enter the enchanted building again.

With a swish of his wand, the girls disappeared and in their place a dozen pot plants stood innocently on the path. With a hearty chuckle, George moved toward the factory ready to rescue his sister and brother-in-law.

But first he'd get his revenge- it was their fault for not admitting they loved each other that he had to wear a bloody dress and heels. He'd give them ten minutes and then he'd let them out. By that time they should've reached the Pumpkin Pasty room and the wave would be upon them.

George laughed. Oh yes, revenge could be so sweet.

* * *

**_SouredSweetie_**


End file.
